This invention pertains generally to apparatus for spraying liquid chemicals and the like from a portable unit.
A wide variety of spray units and tank vehicles are available for commercial agricultural use, but spray units available for domestic use generally do not provide the degree of flexibility and ease of use desired by the part-time farmer or gardner. Such user cannot usually afford a dedicated spray vehicle, but would like to adapt equipment such as a lawn mower, for use as a spray vehicle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,857,515 discloses a rotary lawn mower having a spray unit detachably mounted thereon, in which the mower engine acts as a blower to pressurize the fluid to be sprayed through nozzles carried on a header mounted on the mower deck. U.S. Pat. No. 2,044,884 discloses a reel mower in which the engine operates a pump that is fluidly connected to a feed line and hand-held nozzle for spraying the fluid. These arrangements do not afford adjustablity in the spray pattern and spray intensity deposited on the ground. Furthermore, these arrangements are more or less permanently attached to the mowers, in that no means are disclosed for rapid detachment and reattachment of the spray units.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,236,673 discloses a portable spray unit carried by a small truck or the like, which has a flat bed for easy mounting of the unit. U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,446 discloses a 55 gallon drum adapted for use as a portable shower unit. These arrangements do not suggest any means for setting the spray pattern by adjusting the nozzle height, nozzle separation distance, or nozzle angle.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,143,839 and 3,866,397 represent commercial size units that are not well adapted for domestic use, particularly where it is desirable to detachably mount the unit on a general purpose riding mower or the like.